Automated telephone systems are used extensively to both place and receive telephone calls. For example, airline reservations systems and banks may utilize the inbound or call-receiving features of an automated telephone system, while marketing groups and credit collection departments would utilize the outbound calling features of the system. In a typical outbound calling scenario, a call campaign will be initiated at a call center, using a sophisticated system that combines telephone switching and computer information processing technologies. These sophisticated systems are commonly referred to as computer-telephony-integration (CTI) systems or more narrowly as call management systems or predictive dialing systems. Outbound telemarketing campaigns are conducted for a variety of purposes, including selling and lead generation, obtaining donations, conducting surveys, and propagating information or calls to action.
A CTI system will typically receive a call list associated with a call campaign from a host computer or other source of call records for the campaign. A call campaign in such a system is uniquely associated with a calling party on whose behalf the call is placed. A call record includes information regarding a potential customer, including a telephone number that can be dialed by the CTI system in order to contact the potential customer. The call list may additionally comprise information about each individual such as whether or not they are homeowners, income bracket, purchase history, etc. Associated with a call center is a plurality of call center agents. These call center agents each utilize workstations, which communicate, electronically through the CTI system to one or more host computers, in order to provide an agent with information regarding a call record and information regarding the purpose of a call, such as a telemarketing script or the like.
CTI systems routinely include (or appear as standalone) predictive dialers, which are well known in the art and enable a call center to maximize the utilization of call center agents by automatically dialing telephone numbers associated with call records according to a simple or sophisticated call placing algorithm. For instance, predictive dialers such as the MOSAIX Predictive Dialing System manufactured by Avaya Incorporated or the Call Processing System of SER automatically dial outbound telephone calls to contact individuals and then transfer the contacted individuals to agents, so that the agent can talk with the individual. CTI systems also include call classifiers, which are able to readily detect busy signals, answering machines, voice mail, as well as telephone calls that are answered by a live person. When the call classifier detects a live person, the CTI system substantially immediately connects the live person or contacted party to an available call center agent. A finely tuned predictive dialer will attempt to pace the initiation of outbound calls so that an agent is always available to answer a call to a connected party while, at the same time, ensuring that there is not an abundance of unutilized agents at any particular time.
Typically, as a result of statistical fluctuations and transient conditions, some calls are placed by the predictive dialer and answered by individuals before a call center agent is available. These answered calls are known as overdials.
One way that predictive dialers handle an overdial is to terminate the call by hanging up on the answering individual. A second way that predictive dialers handle an overdial is to direct the answered call to a message player—which plays a prerecorded announcement from the party on whose behalf the overdialed call was placed. The message player plays a message that has been assigned to the list being dialed. When a dialer is able to dial more than one list concurrently, each list is typically associated with a unique message of its own.
Currently, the calling party and the message must be identified at the time a call campaign is set up and these are assigned to all the names on the calling list before the campaign begins without regard to any unique information about the called party or the context of the call. Periodically, the message may be altered mid-campaign. When this occurs, the altered message is subject to the same limitations that the original message was. There is also no ability to place a call to a name on a calling list without uniquely identifying the calling party prior to the initiation of dialing.
Generally, the bigger the calling list the more efficient the dialing. One way to increase the size of lists is to combine the lists for several calling campaigns in which each individual is pre-identified and associated with a unique calling party. Because the message assigned to the call campaign may not be relevant for each individual on the call list, some overdialed calls where a message is played are “wasted” because the message played was not applicable for the individual answering the call. For example, a message about a home improvement project such as vinyl siding is wasted on an individual renting an apartment because the renter is not permitted to authorize such work. However, that same individual may be considering purchasing a home such that a message regarding mortgages may result in a sale.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide more relevant messages to such individuals to assist each message in reaching its target rather than the shotgun approach currently used.
In the case of calling campaigns associated with a unique calling party, the appropriateness of the single message is less problematic; however, this often limits the size of the list and therefore the efficiency of the dialing. And while the general message may be appropriate, the relevance of the message could be enhanced by targeting it more specifically to the called party. For example, on a list of potential credit card applicants, the relevant credit limit or interest rate might be important to message effectiveness.
The most versatile and efficient use of a dialer would defer identification of the calling party (and associated message) until after the dial is placed (or provide the functional equivalence of allowing the call to be reassigned from its original calling party to the campaign of a different calling party). The longer the decision to assign a call to a calling party can be deferred, the more efficiently the dialer will perform. The most efficient assignment would occur immediately after the call is answered. This would enable the dialer to place a dial and subsequently assign the answered call based on dynamic real-world factors, such as, for example, the availability of agents trained on a specific offer or the economic value of a call based on assigning it to a specific called party or a quota.
Additionally, it is desirable to enhance the experience that individuals receive when transferred to a message player so as to increase the probability that the individual will not prematurely terminate the call thereby reducing the effectiveness of the message.
In view of the present disclosure or through practice of the present invention, other advantages may become apparent.